China to grow 8.2% in 2013- Morgan Stanley
May 13, 2013, 3:22 pm

China’s economic growth in 2013 is expected to reach 8.2 per cent, an economist of Morgan Stanley said Monday.

Helen Qiao, chief economist of Greater China of Morgan Stanley, said that so far statistics showed that the Chinese economy is in a mild recovery.

“For the first half of the year, we are expecting twilight… but going through the second half, we are expecting better growth under very supportive monetary policy easing,” she said.

Qiao expressed her surprise on the first quarter GDP growth of 2013.

“In sequential terms, it was actually very low. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number was actually as low as 6.4 pe rcent in quarter on quarter seasonally adjusted. That was 2.4 per cent lower than the fourth quarter in 2012,” Qiao said.

Qiao noted that April will be a very crucial month to be observed to look at how strong the growth recovery has become.

“Especially we are expecting more policy stimulus coming from the urbanization initiatives at the end of the year,” said Qiao.

However, Qiao still perceived that the achievement of the target is not impossible.

“To sum up, we are keeping our real GDP growth forecast of 8.2 per cent this year, but not without risk.”

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.